SENATE SLAMS
Warren: He's a Trump cheerleader! Diehl: She doesn’t even want this job!
Elizabeth Warren and Geoff Diehl accused each other of running false bids to represent the people of Massachusetts, with the U.S. senator slamming Diehl as a “cheerleader” for President Trump, while her GOP rival shot back “You don’t even want this job” in their second debate last night.
“The house is on fire, and Mr. Diehl wants to go down to Washington to be a cheerleader for Donald Trump,” Warren said last night in Springfield.
Diehl hit back at Warren’s signals that she plans to start running for president after the November election.
“You don’t even want this job,” Diehl said. “If you’re running for president for the next two years, we won’t have a voice down in Washington.”
Those were the themes Warren, a Democrat running for a second term as U.S. senator, and Diehl, a GOP state representative, took in last night’s debate, circling issues of gun control, pot laws and climate change back around to the simple question: Who would really represent the people of Massachusetts?
“She’s fixated on the White House — not your house,” Diehl said, attempting to fend off Warren’s repeated attempts to tie him to Trump, whose campaign Diehl co-chaired in Massachusetts.
“I’m trying to support people in different states because I need some allies down in Washington,” Warren said, trying to defend her campaigning for candidates around the country during this election cycle.
Both used the current state of Congress as a punching bag, saying the “poisonous politics” of Washington isn’t working — but accused the other’s side as the one that’s contributed most to making it that way.
And both continued established lines of attack against the other. Warren again referenced a pro-police event Diehl attended in April in Bourne that was organized by a group some have called anti-Muslim.
“This is about ugly slurs and who’s going to support that kind of ugliness,” Warren said. “That’s what Donald Trump and his campaign chair Mr. Diehl both support.”
Diehl attempted to smear Warren as dishonest.
“It’s about integrity in my mind,” Diehl said when asked about how Warren had claimed she was Native American on employment documents. “And I don’t care whether you think you benefited or not from that claim — it’s that you tried to benefit from that claim.”
He later said Warren “falsified her tax returns,” referencing a Herald report that Warren admitted to entering erroneous information.